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S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:41 am
by Otter
I have a S & W .22 cal 78g and it leaves ragged holes on the target using wadcutters. Pointed pellets work fine.

Any ideas why?

Thanks

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:47 am
by Rover
Crap targets (use Euro imports), low velocity (use lightest pellets) but not much help there. Gun MUST be .177 to compete. Frankly, the gun is unsuitable for the game.

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:16 pm
by spektr
Agreed with Rovers comment about craap targets.....
There is a way to make it better, if you are too cheap to buy good targets....
Use the cheapest hair spray on the target to "firm up" the paper.
Still bad, but less bad.....

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:45 pm
by william
Way back when... there was a post recommending baking targets in the oven. There is always somebody here ready to come to the rescue of the too-frugal.

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:45 am
by Otter
Thanks for all the replies.

BUT all my other air rifles and air pistols leave perfect round holes on all the paper targets I use.

Only the .22 78g S&W leaves ragged holes.

So I think it is the pistol...pointed pellets work fine.

Other ideas?

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:13 pm
by Rover
I found this posted online about a just rebuilt gun:

"Velocity tested at around 411 fps using lead pellets."

I find this hard to believe using .22 pellets. Anyone else?

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:58 pm
by High Left
What kind of wadcutter pellets? Do they fit the bore well, or will they fall out the muzzle if you point it down, like crosman super pells did in my old powerline.

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2020 2:28 pm
by Otter
Rover had a reply about power so I found out that the power is adjustable on this pistol. I dialed the power up and now the holes are perfect. The pistol does chrony around 400 fps with 12.4 g pellets.

Thanks to everyone...

Re: S & W 78G ragged holes

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2020 2:57 pm
by crrmeyer
Hopefully you have one of the early versions of the 78G with the adjustable trigger. The eliminated that on later production. I presume too many folks were screwing up the trigger mechanism.